Tuesday, October 09, 2018

Bengaluru: The Fairfax Groupcontrolled Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) plans to dedicate the existing Terminal 1 exclusively for domestic flights, once the yet-tobe-constructed Terminal 2, is commissioned. The new facility, expected to be ready in March 2021, is being designed for higher capacity to cater both to international and domestic traffic. This is part of a long-term traffic allocation plan, mentioned in the Terminal 2 master plan. It is similar to the expansion plan of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The reasons given for dedicating T1 for domestic airlines and developing T2 as an integrated terminal are: it reduces operational cost and improves efficiency; it consolidates international passengers in a single terminal and provides maximum flexibility for airline allocations and it balances the traffic demand in both terminals.
It is learnt that the BIAL neither considered international flights in T1 nor domestic flights in T2. Making both T1 and T2 integrated terminals was also not considered. This, it is learnt, is because T1 requires major reconfiguration to handle international flights.
T1 will not also be able to accommodate BIAL’s target of 11.5 million international travellers per annum. The document also notes that both the terminals (T1 & T2) will not be integrated as it could create duplication of services and transfer between terminals could cause inconvenience to passengers.
09/10/18 Naveen Menezea/Economic Times